$35M in aid hasn’t reached Ukraine
More than $35 million of the roughly $400 million in aid to Ukraine that President Donald Trump delayed, sparking the impeachment inquiry, has not been released to the country, according to a Pentagon spending document obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
Instead, the defense funding for Ukraine remains in U.S. accounts, according to the document. It’s not clear why the money hasn’t been released, and members of Congress are demanding answers.
The controversy began when Trump withheld the assistance package while urging new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to conduct investigations of Trump’s political opponents. The White House lifted its hold on the money Sept. 11 after a whistleblower report emerged alleging a quid pro quo.
Lawmakers had days to save the aid from expiring at the end of the fiscal year in September. Knowing that the money couldn’t all be allocated in time, Congress gave the Pentagon an additional year to spend its share, which totaled about $250 million. The remainder of the package was to come primarily from the State Department.
When Gordon Sondland enters the ornate House hearing room for televised testimony Wednesday morning, he’ll be something of a jump ball in the contest between Republicans and Democrats to control narratives of the Ukraine case _ a witness who could provide crucial testimony for either side, but whom both regard with suspicion.
A former big-dollar donor to Republicans rewarded with a plum ambassadorship, Sondland says he told the Ukrainians that U.S. foreign aid and a White House meeting with the president was contingent on conducting investigations into the Biden family.
And unlike other witnesses in the impeachment case, Sondland had direct conversations with President Donald Trump about relations with Ukraine, making him a key witness.
But Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, has already had to change the story he presented to impeachment investigators _ the result of reading other witnesses’ opening statements that he said had “refreshed (his) recollection.”
That has made Sondland potentially not only one of the most important witnesses, but also one of the least credible _ a perilous combination. His testimony could bolster the Democratic case or give Republicans an opening to undercut it.
“This impeachment inquiry will come down to (Wednesday), regardless of which side you’re on, pro-impeachment or not,” Republican Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina said Tuesday. “His interactions were probably the ones that were closest to the president.”
Neither party is ready in advance to declare Sondland untrustworthy: Both hope his testimony could help their side. That could change significantly based on what he says publicly. Lawmakers in both parties are prepping exacting questions.
A central issue in the impeachment inquiry is the extent to which Trump knowingly was involved in efforts to pressure the Ukrainians to investigate Biden and other Democrats.
Sondland’s testimony is key on that point. If he strengthens the link to Trump and comes across as trustworthy, public support for the impeachment inquiry could increase. Conversely, if doubts linger around his truthfulness, Democrats will have a hard time resting their case upon his words.
“He is a first-person (witness), so he’s pretty important to us,” said Rep. Jim Himes, D-conn.
For undecided lawmakers _ and members of the public _ a firstperson account could be decisive.
“The closer you get to firsthand knowledge of what happened, it removes any kind of discussion that there wasn’t (any) using (of) American power to extract something from the Ukraine,” said Rep. Francis Rooney, R-fla., who has emerged as one of the few Republicans who is open to the idea of supporting the impeachment effort.
Sondland will be testifying under oath, meaning he could be subject to perjury charges if he is found to be lying to Congress. And he won’t have to stretch too far back in history to find evidence that Congress _ and prosecutors _ take the offense seriously.
Two corrections officers responsible for guarding Jeffrey Epstein on the night in August when he was found hanging in his jail cell were charged on Tuesday with failing to do their jobs and then covering up their dereliction.
Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, officers at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, were charged with making false records and conspiring to interfere with the functions of the federal prison.
Noel, 31, and Thomas, 41, failed to check on Epstein every half hour as required, the indictment says, and falsified logs to make it appear they had in fact been monitoring the Palm Beach multimillionaire and sex offender on Aug. 9 and 10.
Instead of performing their duties, according to the indictment unsealed Tuesday, Noel and Thomas “sat at their desk, browsed the internet, and moved around the common area of the SHU (Special Housing Unit).”